SlashGear Reviews

Amazon's Echo smart speakers typically work better on the smart side, rather than the speaker quality front, but the new Echo Input promises to pair Alexa with your own choice of speakers. Part of the company's wide-ranging gush of Alexa hardware this year, the $34.99 gadget is effectively an Echo Dot that can only talk back to you if it's plugged into an external audio player.

The Razer Phone 2 once again offers a unique smartphone package to a still-stagnant smartphone market. We're no longer in a place where there's a massive number of people looking to buy their first phone (in the USA, anyway), we're at the point at which most people have had a couple smartphones - or more - in their adult lives. Now's the time to release something different - something that takes a chance with hardware design and features that appeal to some, but not all.

Few vehicles are as over-specified for their typical habitat as the 2019 Mercedes-AMG G63 and the Mercedes-Benz G550. The automaker’s iconic “G Wagon” may be a legitimate off-roader, but its unmistakable design is more familiar from Malibu than out in the mud. With this latest generation, then, the question has to be whether Mercedes has diluted the G-Class for the inevitable on-road tastes, or if this rebooted beast is as flagrant as ever.

I did not expect to be reviewing a vacuum this season. Not least of all because I've had the same pet-aimed vacuum cleaner for the past decade, and it's not as if there's a major calling out there for reviews of vacuum cleaners. But this device was strange - and intriguing enough that I had to give it a whirl. As it turned out, I didn't know what I'd been missing these past 10 years. Apparently vacuums have gotten a lot more awesome since I was last in the market for a tool such as this.

If the Pixelbook demonstrated Google could make a compelling laptop, the Google Pixel Slate is its attempt to do the same for tablets. Like the latest iPad Pro, it's a confident claim that what was once considered a pared-back, mobile OS can now wear Big Boy Pants and be everything you need to do "real work" on the go. In the process, though, Google finds itself bumping up against some of the same challenges that Apple did with its tablet, and the Pixel Slate doesn't always have the best answers either.

It’s been 22 years since the first-generation Toyota RAV4 arrived in US shores. Back then, compact-based crossovers or small SUVs were as ubiquitous as smartphones, emojis, and selfies - in short, it was a tiny market, compared to the behemoth it has become today. Who would have thought larger SUVs would take the place of family sedans or station wagons as the everyday driver?

You end up thinking a lot about air quality when a thick pall of smoke has been hanging outside your windows for two weeks solid - enough to make you think that a high-tech air purifier is probably a very good addition to most homes. Coway's Airmega 400S is one such example, combining a voracious appetite for air impurities with a host of connected features that should make it a more welcome guest. Question is, at more than $600, is it worth it?

2018 is perhaps one of Huawei's most exciting years yet. Almost like the script for a Hollywood blockbuster, the year began with a tragedy that seemed like a death sentence for the protagonist. It left its hero in a period of limbo, its future uncertain. But like the true star of its story, Huawei’s perseverance responded with vengeance, putting out smartphones that consumers will want to grab but, due to some circumstances beyond their control, cannot.

The HTC VIVE Wireless Adapter is a bit of technology that changes the overall feeling of reality in a room-scale VR experience. This is an add-on to the original HTC VIVE and the HTC VIVE Pro. This adapter isn't required to enter virtual reality, but it'll make the process a lot less painful if you're not particularly sure-footed. Less painful, that is, if you didn't have a rough time setting up the VIVE in the first place.

It was pretty clear when Porsche announced the 2018 Panamera 4 E-Hybrid Sport Turismo that it wasn't going to be your normal hybrid. The closest the automaker's cars get to green is usually their paint job, after all, but the shapely Sport Turismo claims to be more eco-conscious than you'd expect. Of course, since this is a Porsche it couldn't just be about saving the planet.

This week we're taking a look at the OnePlus 6T, the second of the company's yearly smartphone duo. The OnePlus 6T isn't the same as previous "tock" phones in the OnePlus "tick tock" strategy. Instead of refining the phone they've released earlier in the year, this device is a bit more of an extreme departure. As far as smartphones go, this device is significantly different from its most immediate predecessor.

"Why are you talking to the microwave?" Being the spouse of an early-adopter has never been especially easy, but the arrival of the smart home - and voice-controlled systems like Amazon Alexa in particular - has certainly magnified the potential for confusion. How, then, to explain why the AmazonBasics Microwave powered by Alexa is really for your tech-tired partner's benefit, not yours?